January 8, 2013

Karachi archdiocese has unveiled an online Sunday school ministry targeting young people and internet and smartphone users.

The website was developed quickly to coincide with an annual meeting of Sunday school teachers in Karachi and held on Friday.

“The domain and hosting services were acquired just after Christmas. I developed the site in just two days,” said Ronald Joseph during a meeting of hundreds of teachers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where the ministry site was unveiled.

The site offers an overview of the Sunday school’s yearly activities and statements and photos of past events.

There are 716 registered and volunteer Sunday school teachers in Karachi serving more than 110,000 children.

“I am still awaiting study materials from the teachers. We plan to categorize the photos, add lessons and install more applications including Bible games,” said Joseph.

Father Saleh Diego, national director of the online ministry, hopes to add more recruits with the new initiative.

“Digital evangelism is the need of the times. We are trying to catch youth where they are – namely on smartphones and computers. Also it will help us overcome a shortage of teachers”, he said.

Father Qaiser Feroz, the only Pakistani priest with a graduate degree in social communications, said the Church has yet to explore the full potential of cyber evangelism but that the program was a step in the right direction.

“The trend of using the internet is increasing rapidly due to low-cost handsets that can connect online. Most of the Church-run websites are dead within months because they are never updated,” he said.

Related Reports

Want more stories like this?Sign up to UCAN Daily or Weekly newsletter.